paperback, 224 pages
Published Jan. 30, 2018 by Vintage.
"For readers of Jon Krakauer and The Lost City of Z, a remarkable tale of survival and solitude--the true story of a man who lived alone in a tent in the Maine woods, never talking to another person and surviving by stealing supplies from nearby cabins for twenty-seven years. In 1986, twenty-year-old Christopher Knight left his home in Massachusetts, drove to Maine, and disappeared into the woods. He would not have a conversation with another human being until nearly three decades later when he was arrested for stealing food. Living in a tent even in winter, he had survived by his wits and courage, developing ingenious ways to store food and water, to avoid freezing to death. He broke into nearby cottages for food, clothes, reading material, and other provisions, taking only what he needed, but terrifying a community never able to solve the mysterious burglaries. Based on extensive interviews …
"For readers of Jon Krakauer and The Lost City of Z, a remarkable tale of survival and solitude--the true story of a man who lived alone in a tent in the Maine woods, never talking to another person and surviving by stealing supplies from nearby cabins for twenty-seven years. In 1986, twenty-year-old Christopher Knight left his home in Massachusetts, drove to Maine, and disappeared into the woods. He would not have a conversation with another human being until nearly three decades later when he was arrested for stealing food. Living in a tent even in winter, he had survived by his wits and courage, developing ingenious ways to store food and water, to avoid freezing to death. He broke into nearby cottages for food, clothes, reading material, and other provisions, taking only what he needed, but terrifying a community never able to solve the mysterious burglaries. Based on extensive interviews with Knight himself, this is a vividly detailed account of the why and how of his secluded life--as well as the challenges he has faced returning to the world. A riveting story of survival that asks fundamental questions about solitude, community, and what makes a good life, and a deeply moving portrait of a man who was determined to live his own way, and succeeded"--Publisher description.
"Thoreau was an amateur" says Christopher Knight, who lived alone in the forests of Maine for 27 years, and I must agree. To remove yourself so thoroughly from society is a strange achievement, and it's more real for all that the world that Knight shunned is so much more like my own than that of Walden. Very well researched and thoughtful book about a true stoic.
This case fascinated me back when it was first in the news, and this is an excellent account of the events leading up to and following Chris Knight’s forcible return to civilization.
I liked it.
Lots of additional speculations though - unrelated info about pilgrimage, bums and schizophrenia. I mean, the author needed some volume to call it a book - but if we follow the main hero's ideology - there is not much of a story about him, nada, nothing. He just disappeared and you feel quite invasive when reading this story, like a pervert prying on him
With True life stories we do not always get the story we want.
It would be fun to have a fictional story based on this.
